Love Through Time
by rainstormslove
Summary: She was the brightest witch of her age. But that didn't help her keep her friends, it didn't help her save her parents, and it probably wouldn't help her find herself in this new time that the powers-that-be decided to toss her in to. Now the only person she has that she might be able to rely on is herself, and maybe that dirty pirate whose ship she'd been dropped on to.


She couldn't believe it. She was Hermione Granger, brightest witch of her age, and she had been completely fooled. Sure she had acted like she hadn't heard, like she couldn't see the look of surprise and something akin to revulsion on their faces as she walked around the corner from the girl's stair case and into the Gryffindor common room… but the fact of the matter was that she did. She had noticed. And she was hurt. She couldn't believe that after all of these years, all they had been through (a war for pity's sake!), that they were doing this.

*Flashback*

"_I don't see why you two still bother to spend time with her, she's like a little lost puppy hanging about," came the voice of the girl she thought of as her closest girlfriend._

"_Ginny we only have a few weeks left, don't you think it's a bit cruel to just ditch her right before school's out?" And that was Ron… maybe his emotional range was closer to a teaspoon and a half._

"_So what? Like ditching her after school's out would be any better? Just get it over with. I don't know how she can't see that none of us want her around anyway!" Ginny again, she sounded vehement. Hermione couldn't believe what she was hearing. Surely Harry would stand up for her against the other two, he was like the brother she never had._

"_We have NEWTS in two weeks, you know we can't pass them without her help, and they won't let us in the Auror Academy without them. Dunno why they care, us being war heroes and all." Hermione's jaw now felt like it ought to be on the floor at Ron's words. _

"_Ron does have a point, Gin. Though I still don't see how we could pass Potions even with her help." After hearing that Harry didn't even contradict them, Hermione decided she had heard quite enough and walked into the common room, trying her best to hide her moist eyes._

"_Ready to go to dinner?" She says, hoping none of them can hear the slight tremor in her voice that would give her away._

*End Flashback*

She couldn't figure out what happened. These boys were supposed to be her best friends. They had both saved her life before and she theirs. They had been through six years of Hogwarts, a year in hiding hunting down the Horcruxes to kill that hideous excuse of a human being, and now they were back at Hogwarts to finish their education and take their NEWTS. And now, without explanation, something was clearly very wrong.

Hermione was sitting in her very large bathtub off of her private Head Girl suite. It was somehow still in Gryffindor tower, right at the very top, even though she knew that the Heads weren't always Gryffindor. She assumed the castle simply adjusted to fit current needs. She thought that taking a warm bath might calm her down after what she heard earlier. She desperately hoped that she had heard them wrong. That there was something she was missing. The calmer she got, the more she thought about it. As she was replaying the conversation in her head, she realized, there was nothing for it she had to talk to them. She had to get the truth.

The next morning was a Saturday, Hermione as usual got up at 7 am, despite her stress from the night before she couldn't bring herself to sleep past then. She wanted to confront her "friends" as soon as possible, but they wouldn't be up for hours so she might as well get something done. She slowly stood from her bed to get ready for the day, changing into a comfortable pair of muggle jeans and a soft knitted dark green sweater. Even in May the library always managed to be drafty. After brushing her teeth, she grabbed her back pack and walked out of her room and to the stair way intent on having an early breakfast before putting in a few hours of studying for the swiftly approaching NEWTS.

Walking through the portrait hole, she let out a little sigh of relief. She would never be able to look at the leather chair and the red upholstered couch by fire in quite the same way. That spot held so many happy memories of her and the boys. But now it was just the place where her friends had said those awful things about her. She shook her head in a vain attempt to clear if of the depressing thoughts now swirling around in it.

As she walked through the near empty halls of Hogwarts and down the many stair cases she found herself extremely distracted until she felt a sharp yank on her arm resulting in her falling back onto her arse on the stairs. She looked up to see Professor Snape staring at her with a surprising amount of concern.

"Miss Granger, what could possibly be so distracting as to keep you from noticing that this stair case was not attached to anything at the bottom."

Hermione winced, 'yep, that is definitely concern, I must look worse than I thought.'

"Nothing Professor, just beginning to realize I might not have as many friends as I thought," she said with a sniffle, Snape's uncharacteristic concern catching her off guard.

"Why don't you come join the Headmaster and myself for breakfast this morning? We can't have 'The Brightest Witch of her Age' tumbling down the stairs," the professor said with more than a hint of sarcasm when he referred to her. That at least made her feel better and she nodded her head, not quite trusting her voice.

Hermione stared for a split second as Professor Snape held out his hand to her as an offer to help her up, she somewhat reluctantly took his hand to allow him to help her. She was completely surprised to have him tuck her hand into his elbow but soon appreciated it as she slipped back into thoughts of her friends.

They had just walked past the Fat Lady's portrait when it swung open and there was a commotion behind her as several people seemingly tried to get out of the portrait hole at once. She turned ever so slightly. She could hear the soft but exasperated "oh, honestly" from the Fat Lady before seeing out of the corner of her eye her three friends tumbling from the portrait hole only to turn around and face her.

"Hermione! What are you doing with the Greasy Git?!" Ron yelled down the hall, loud enough to wake the dead. She didn't answer, wouldn't lower herself to yelling in the hallway in front of one of her most respected professors. "Answer me! What are you whoring it up with the Slytherins now? Got a date with Malfoy or Zabini later? Are they paying you?"

At that Professor Snape stopped, he looked down at Hermione to see her stricken face and tears gathering in her eyes.

"Ron, show some respect, Professor Snape wouldn't sleep with a student, especially one who was sleeping with his whole house," Ginny said snidely.

The part that really broke her inside though and sealed the fate of the friendships that had meant so much to her was seeing Harry smirk at Ginny's comment. These were her friends! Or at least they were supposed to be. How could they be saying such cruel things about her?

From the look Snape gave her, he couldn't quite believe it either. He gently removed her hand from his elbow and twirled around, his ever present cloak swishing out behind him, to confront her one-time friends.

"Detention!" he enunciated carefully, speaking just barely above a whisper. "Every night for the rest of the term for all three of you!" They were shocked, though she couldn't figure out why, surely they must know that they couldn't say such things in front of a professor. "Come along Miss Granger, we have an appointment to keep with the Headmaster," he said in a much lighter manner, for him at any rate. He steered her back around and they walked away from the trio before they could start into her again.

Once they were out of hearing distance, Professor Snape stated in the same light tone, "Would I be correct in assuming that you have done nothing to garner such statements about your person?"

"Yes, sir, you would be correct. This started last night out of nowhere, I don't know what happened," she said in one breath before firmly shutting her mouth and turning her face away from him slightly so he wouldn't see her trying to hold back the tears.

"Come along then, I think the Headmaster will likely have something to say about this." They walked down the hall in silence until they reached the corridor that held the staircase to Dumbledore's office. Professor Snape gave the gargoyle the password ('Blood Pops') and it stepped aside to allow them to step into the spiral staircase that led them up to the office.

Some several hundred miles away and a few hundred years in the past, Captain Jack Sparrow weighed anchor at the mouth of a sheltered bay a few dozen miles from London so that he could restock his ship and maybe find some girls even in a city as classy as London. Though come to think of it, he wasn't quite clear on why he was here, seeing as his last journey here ended so disastrously with regards to one Angelica Teach. He was thankful that business was behind him, but he couldn't help but be weary as he climbed over the side of the ship and into the small row boat that would take him and part of his crew ashore.


End file.
